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Intel Acquires 15 Percent Stake In Mapping Firm HERE (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the are-we-there-yet dept.

As the company looks to build its presence in automated driving technology, Intel announced on Tuesday it will acquire a 15 percent stake in German digital mapping firm HERE. Reuters reports: A filing to the German cartel office on Tuesday showed Intel has sought approval to buy a stake in the company, which is controlled by German carmakers Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen. Intel and HERE said in a statement that they had also signed an agreement to collaborate on the research and development of real-time updates of high definition (HD) maps for highly- and fully-automated driving. Intel did not disclose how much it would pay for the stake but said the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter. The deal highlights a shift in the dynamics of research and development in the car industry, which until recently saw automakers largely dictating terms for suppliers to manufacture their proprietary technologies at specified volumes and prices. Now carmakers are increasingly striking partnerships with technology firms using open technology standards, seeking to harness their expertise in areas including machine learning and mapping as they race against Silicon Valley companies such as Google, Tesla and Apple to develop driverless vehicles.

22 comments

  1. Where? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where?

    1. Re:Where? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who?

    2. Re: Where? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What?

    3. Re: Where? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here, that's where.

    4. Re: Where? by fbobraga · · Score: 1

      When?

  2. Why HERE? by unixisc · · Score: 1

    I'm starting to wonder about some of Intel's investments. Like they acquired McAfee and renamed it Intel Anti-Virus, I haven't seen it in too many places. Now, this. Didn't HERE get acquired by a German auto consortium?

    Methinks Intel should start making parts that go into Teslas, and other EV cars. That would be a new growth market for them

    1. Re:Why HERE? by Luthair · · Score: 1

      One has to imagine its their way of being involved in future car automation. Good mapping software is a critical component of any automation.

    2. Re:Why HERE? by mikael · · Score: 1

      Intel need to invest in anti-virus software in order to keep their architecture in use. How big are the virus definition files? 250 Megabytes of data to protect against everything from script kiddies to ransomware. That's more disk space than desktop PC's from the mid 1990's. They have to, otherwise alternative OS with different security models and hardware architectures could take over.

      Driverless vehicles depends computer vision at the low level, which in turn depends on parallel processing and embedded supercomputing, and a high level accurate maps and traffic reports for dynamic route planning. Many taxi drivers already use a combination of route planning systems and local radio traffic reports for long distance journeys. They have to compete against Nvidia Jetson and other systems.

      For Intel to get into automobile components, they have to compete against ARM CPU's and micro controllers on price/performance and power ratios. They need to provide a CPU that is cheaper than ARM processors that consume less power (watts) with a better performance.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    3. Re:Why HERE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      McAfee is already spun off.

    4. Re:Why HERE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Intel is teaming up with BMW, one of the current owners of HERE. It appears BMW is quite a bit ahead of Intel in the area of self-driving cars, and this looks like Intel quietly moving a lot of money to BMW. Presumably, that's why BMW is willing to take on Intel.

  3. Oh boy!!! by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1

    Intel gets to ruin another software company!

    --
    That is all.
    1. Re:Oh boy!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not entirely fair. McAfee was pretty abysmal before Intel bought them.

      Brings to mind the joke about Paul Otellini barking orders to an underling:
      "Underling! Get McAfee for me!" ...time passes...
      "Here Mr Otellini, sir, we have McAfee for you."
      "Great! Which version?"
      "....Uh... Version?"

  4. The new software model by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Instead of open source, we'll have proprietary software that has been owned and worked on by every large technology company in the world at one time or another.

    1. Re:The new software model by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what happens when governments squander society's resources on endless war and nanny-state fantasies; the youthful, optimistic, altruistic idealism that forms the foundation of "free" software quickly evaporates under the pressure of mounting student loans, mortgages, and rising living costs.

      You want more "free" software? Then get rid of the parasites that are the governments of this world.

  5. Cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    HERE is definitely better than Google Maps and Apple Maps. They at least update their map more than once a year, if you're outside the US.

    1. Re:Cool by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      HERE is definitely better than Google Maps and Apple Maps. They at least update their map more than once a year, if you're outside the US.

      Dunno about that. DJI recently changed from Google maps to HERE for controlling their little drones. It has not gone over well with the community in the forums. Might be DJI's fault - they manage to screw up most firmware updates but it doesn't give warm fuzzies.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:Cool by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      I thought Apple had renamed their maps to "WHERE?" a few years ago.

    3. Re:Cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They each have advantages. HERE is much better at offline stuff, and actually manages to display the map in not-English when I ask it to. Google, on the other hand, has good support for bus schedules and stops.

      This was in Asia, on Android.

  6. Re:Cool. by mmell · · Score: 1
    There are people outside the US using technology? Somebody better tell POTUS-erect! Next thing you know, they'll like, hack into our stuff and junk.

    Of course, with so many fat kids living in/governing New Jersey, how could we tell (unless we caught them in the act, of course)?

  7. Sadly... by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    The mapping software won't help Intel find a viable business model as desktop computers go out of vogue. The future of consumer electronics is ARM running Linux, not X86 running Windows. Touchscreen will also lose market share as they are partially replaced by voice control, especially in automotive applications.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Sadly... by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      It's not meant for desktop computers; it's meant for automated vehicles to help them find the way.

      And that I also think is the wrong approach. Maps are NEVER correct. There are accidental errors, there are changes to the landscape, temporary obstacles, etc. Normal maps should be good enough for a self-driving vehicle to find its way, just like people find the way: by looking at the actual streets, not by (literally) blindly following a map and hoping that works out fine. So even if maps are detailed enough to follow streets and lanes on streets and so, the cars anyway have to be very aware of the actual place, to the extent that those maps are not needed any more.